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Christopher Curwen

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Christopher Curwen
Born(1929-04-09)9 April 1929
Died18 December 2013(2013-12-18) (aged 84)
NationalityBritish
Alma materSidney Sussex College, Cambridge
OccupationIntelligence officer
AwardsKCMG
Espionage activity
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service branchSecret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6)
RankChief of the Secret Intelligence Service

Sir Christopher Keith Curwen, KCMG (9 April 1929 – 18 December 2013) was a British Intelligence officer specialising in South East Asia who was Head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1985 to 1989.

Career

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Curwen was educated at Sherborne School and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge after which he was commissioned into the 4th Queen's Own Hussars in 1948, serving in Malaya.[1][2] He joined SIS in 1952 and was posted to Thailand in 1954 and Vientiane, Laos in 1956.[2] He returned to the service's London headquarters in 1958, had another spell in Bangkok from 1961 and then two years in Kuala Lumpur. He was at one time married to a woman from Burma;[3] they were later divorced.[4]

Curwen spent three years as SIS liaison officer in Washington D.C. from 1968 and was then head of station in Geneva.[5] He was deputy to Sir Colin Figures from 1980 and succeeded him as Chief of the Service in 1985.[6] His tenure was notable for the successful exfiltration from Moscow of the KGB officer and British agent Oleg Gordievsky.[4][2]

His obituary in The Times noted: "He possessed a romantic patriotism that belied his hard-headed persona."[2]

References

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  1. ^ Burke's Peerage and Gentry
  2. ^ a b c d "Sir Christopher Curwen obituary". The Times. No. 71078. 27 December 2013.
  3. ^ "Sir Christopher Curwen". www.thetimes.com. 26 December 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Sir Christopher Curwen obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 23 December 2013.
  5. ^ MI6 - 50 years of Special Operations, by Stephen Dorril, Page 753, Harper Collins, 2001, ISBN 1-85702-701-9
  6. ^ Cloaked Dagger

Notes

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Government offices
Preceded by Chief of the SIS
1985–1989
Succeeded by